Extract text from VirtualBox disk images (VDI)
To convert VDI disk images to another format, you need Oracle VM VirtualBox or other Disk Image software.
To convert other file formats to the "Virtual Disk Drive" file type, you need software like Oracle VM VirtualBox or a similar tool.
The .VDI file format primarily functions as a Virtual Disk Image for Oracle VM VirtualBox. It acts as the virtual hard drive for a guest operating system, storing all system files, applications, and user data. A secondary use for .VDI files is the VDI 3805 standard, which stores HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) building services product data for CAD software like DDS-CAD.
Dealing with .VDI virtual disk files presents significant real-world challenges. They are notoriously massive - often exceeding 50GB - and are natively locked into the VirtualBox ecosystem. If you want to migrate your virtual machine to VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V, a native .VDI file simply will not boot. Furthermore, extracting a single trapped document from inside a .VDI image typically requires booting the entire virtual machine or using complex command-line mounting tools, which is resource-heavy and inaccessible on standard web browsers.
To break free from these virtualization limits, format conversion is the most practical workaround. For migrating to VMware, convert to VMDK. For Windows Hyper-V, convert to VHD. If you need forensic-level access to the underlying data, converting to a RAW disk image allows direct sector-level mounting. For the HVAC VDI 3805 files, converting to CSV or XML exposes the catalog data for standard spreadsheet use.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VDI file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted VBOX, IMG, VMDK, ISO, VDI_, OVA, 7Z, ZIP, XZ, QCOW2, SAV, XDI and VHDX files.
If you want to convert VDI file to VMDK, VHD, QCOW2, ISO, IMG, OVA, RAW, DMG, HDD, QCOW, VBOX or OVF, you can use Oracle VM VirtualBox or similar software from the "Virtual Machine Disk Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert VFD, DMG, OVA, IMA, VBOX, ADF, PVS, VHD, OVF, ISO, DSK or IMG files to VDI, try Oracle VM VirtualBox or another comparable tool in the "Virtual Machine Disk Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our VDI converter.